This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present invention, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Certain types of radiopharmaceuticals are prepared utilizing heat. In some radiopharmaceutical preparation processes, radiopharmaceutical precursors/reactants are placed into a container (e.g., a vial), and the container is then placed in a heater. The heater elevates the temperature of the components in the vial until the radiopharmaceutical is ready for use (e.g., until components in the vial have reacted with one another as desired). Conventional radiopharmaceutical heaters employ a variety of techniques to transfer heat to the container. For instance, some radiopharmaceutical heaters employ a liquid heat bath to convey heat to the contents in the container.
Some existing radiopharmaceutical heaters are inefficient and/or difficult to clean. For example, containers placed in heated water baths may contaminate the water, resulting in an undesired volume of radioactive material for which appropriate disposal is required. Solid radiopharmaceutical heater blocks may be easier to clean, but the amount of time that some heater blocks take to heat the container is often undesirable. In radiopharmacies, this undesired delay can increase cost and/or cause delay in the preparation and/or delivery of radiopharmaceutical doses. It is believed that a reason for this undesirably inefficient heating may be variations in the shape and size of containers relative to a fixed shape of a container receptacle in a particular radiopharmaceutical heater block. As a result of these variations, the container receptacle in the heater block may only contact the container at limited locations or even not at all. As such, conductive heat transfer is limited (or effectively absent in some instances) such that the container takes an undesirably long time to reach a target temperature.
Some radiopharmaceutical heaters may include lids that are difficult to operate. For example, some existing radiopharmaceutical heaters include lids having handles that pass over a radioactive container in the heater when the lid is being moved between open and closed positions. Generally, a technician attempts to avoid placing part of his body in a direct line-of-sight with the radioactive container to reduce radiation exposure. To this end, technicians often use forceps (or other appropriate tools) to manipulate the lids of the radiopharmaceutical heaters. As such, some technicians tend to assume awkward positions when manipulating the lid of the radiopharmaceutical heater (by way of the handle) to avoid positioning themselves directly over the container.